Adjectives in Marathi

Adjectives are those words which describe nouns. You are familiar with English adjectives : small, big , tall , short etc. There is a slight difference between English adjectives and Marathi adjectives. English adjectives do not modify themselves for the noun they describe.

For example, 1)Big girl, Big girls.

2)Big boy, Big boys.

The adjective “Big” stays unchanged with the gender as well as the multiplicity of the noun.

In Marathi, this rule is slightly different.

There are two types of adjectives in Marathi. Inflecting adjectives and non-inflecting adjectives. Let us go through each one of them in detail.

Inflecting adjectives.

Inflecting adjectives change itself to agree with the noun that follows it. Consider following sentences.

Singular case :

Adjective

Masculine

Feminine

Neuter

मोठा(big)

मोठा तारा(big star)

मोठी मुलगी (big girl)

मोठे घर(big house)

हिरवा(green)

हिरवा टेबल (green table)

हिरवी खुर्ची (green chair)

हिरवे झाड (green tree)

चांगला (nice/good)

चांगला शर्ट (nice shirt)

चांगली पेन्ट (nice pant)

चांगले बटण (nice button)

Plural case :

Adjective

Masculine

Feminine

Neuter

मोठा

मोठे तारे(big stars)

मोठ्या मुली(big girls)

मोठी घरे (big houses)

हिरवा

हिरवे टेबल

हिरव्या खुर्च्या

हिरवी झाडे

चांगला

चांगले शर्ट

चांगल्या पेन्ट

चांगली बटण

Now, how to tell which adjective is inflecting and which is not ?

Generally, adjectives ending with आ(aa) note are inflecting adjectives. For example,all colors in Marathi such as काळा, हिरवा, निळा are inflecting adjectives.Also, the numerals like पहिला ,दुसरा ……are inflecting adjectives.

Non-inflecting adjectives.

These adjectives don’t care about the gender or multiplicity of the noun. They stay as it is; just like English adjectives.